Sorry for the long wait, but, university, gym and work are keeping me busy as hell.... Anyways, here's the new chapter. Please, do review. Special thanks go to my lovely Beta Compleatly Random Disorder, who is a wonderful writer herself, so check out her stories. Hint hint. And i don't own anything besides Ann Evans. Enjoy.
Chapter 3
Horatio was still at the Headquarters when Ryan called him. He could sense from the tension in his youngest CSI's voice that whatever he had to say was important, so he immediately received both Ryan and Ann in his little office.
"Mr. Wolfe… You sounded quite worried on the telephone. May I ask you what worries you?"
Ryan bit his lip. This was the moment where he was officially putting his uncle's life on the line. And it was not easy. He sighed and said, "Horatio, we have a situation. My uncle has been kidnapped. Ron Wolfe. The kidnappers want him to open the safe of Hans Kaufman, the scientist. They probably want the newest nerve toxin he has developed. My uncle has refused to do so, and now the have called his co-worker, Ann Evans, and threatened her they would kill Ron if she refuses too."
Horatio nodded, "I see… And I guess you're Miss Ann Evans." Ann nodded. "So, as I see things… you're a safecracker too?"
"Actually I'm not… But they don't know. They think I am… I'm climbing windows…"
"I see… Okay, here's what we gonna do. Mr Wolfe, you and Miss Evans are coming with us. I call Eric and Calleigh. We're going to take a look at your uncle's apartment, see if we find anything that could tell us where they have brought your uncle. If not, I have to report it to my superiors. They will know what to do."
--
Calleigh, Eric, Ryan Ann and Horatio entered Ron's apartment half an hour later. Everything looked like Ryan was used to. There were no signs of a struggle, neither of forced entry. But Ann had already told them that. Ryan frowned:
"You say you came over to water the plants, right?"
"Yes."
"I know he doesn't keep plants in his bedroom… Have you been there?"
Ann frowned, "Now that you mention it, no I haven't."
Horatio immediately went over and opened the door to the bedroom. And there he found what they had been looking for. The bedroom was chaos. Not the usual Ron Wolfe chaos, but it looked like a bomb had exploded. Ryan closed his eyes as he saw it. Until now, he still had hoped that somebody was just making really bad jokes, but now, he knew it was the truth. Horatio waved Eric to come before he turned to Ryan and Ann:
"I want you two to stay outside of this room. You just look, and then you tell me what you see. Has anything been taken away? Or is anything here that doesn't belong to Mr Wolfe and that could be from our kidnappers? I need you to focus and concentrate."
Ryan looked around as did Ann. Ryan had lived for six years with Ron, not to mention the several nights he had spend here when he already had his own place. If anything was odd, he would notice it. His eyes scanned the room. The lamp on the bedside was broken; there was blood on it. Probably the kidnappers had used the lamp to knock Ron out. Delko was already bagging it. His eyes wandered over the bed. The sheets were in a mess. They probably had come in at night, when Ron was already sleeping. But it could also be that Ron just didn't straighten them. The wardrobe was open; clothes were lying on the floor. They had been looking for something, probably Ron's tools. Ryan almost had to laugh. As if Ron would need tools to open the safe. He looked more closely at the wardrobe. The shoe-boxes had also been pulled out, their contents lying on the floor. Ron had kept his shoes in the boxes, as well as his… well, toys… his belts, his song notebooks and his collection of empty cigarette boxes from all over the world. That was something he had copied from Ryan. Keep little things stored in empty shoeboxes. Ryan did that, too. Spare shoelaces, ties, old notebooks from his time as a patrol… Everything that just occupied too much space otherwise was kept in shoeboxes. Now, everything was spread out on the floor. And then Ryan saw it. To anybody else, it would look perfectly normal; nobody would guess it didn't belong here. But Ryan noticed it. Because he knew it didn't belong there. Because he also knew where it belonged. And because he owed the most painful hours in his life to it... He swallowed:
"Horatio?"
"Ryan?"
"The belt there…. the leather belt… the dark one. It's not my uncle's…"
Horatio walked over to it and took a closer look, "Are you sure about that?"
"Yes, sir. 100%."
"It might be from our kidnapper then…"
Ryan didn't answer. He knew, once Valera, or Natalia, had been over the belt, had collected DNA from it, they would know that it wasn't the kidnapper's. Or could it be? After all, it could still be a coincidence. Maybe the belt actually was the kidnapper's. Maybe, after all those years, Ryan's eyes were playing tricks on him. Maybe it only looked like… the belt. His father's belt surely wasn't a unicum. But then again… How probable was that? Oh lord, no… It would mean…He shook his head. No, that was not possible. That just wasn't possible. It had to be another belt. Anything else would mean that his father was involved in the kidnapping, and that just wasn't possible. Period. His father was a good man, a soldier, one of those that people trusted with their lives. He would never ever do such a thing. He watched Delko bagging the belt. In was in that moment that it hit him; if this was his father's belt, they would also find his DNA on it, if they only looked hard enough. And they would ask him about it…. And even if they didn't, they would ask his father to come over and make a statement. And he would tell them. Either way… they would ask him. They would ask him how his blood had ended up on that belt. And he had to tell them. Horatio, Eric, Calleigh, Natalia… everybody would know. Everybody involved on that case would hear what he had to say, why he never talked about his family, why the only person at his bedside in hospital had been Alexx. Alexx… She would find out too. And she would probably go all uber-mother on him. Oh no, if there was anything he couldn't stand it was pity… He shook his head. It was too early. He had to concentrate on what was here now. Not on something that would happen over the next days. His looks scanned the room again. But nothing else was odd. Ann came to the same conclusion:
"It's nothing different. Besides of the belt and the lamp."
Horatio nodded, "Thank you very much, Miss Evans. Ryan, can you guide her downstairs to the patrol car; the officer will bring her home. And I suggest you go home too. If you can think of anything that could be important, you both call me…"
--
Ryan guided Ann to the car. But he didn't go home, as Horatio had told him but went back to HQ. He knew time was short, and he didn't want to waste any of it by staying at home. If they discovered whose belt it was, if it truly was his, it would be better that he was already there, and that they didn't have to wait for him to drive over. Horatio noticed it, but he didn't say anything. Ryan had watched the belt being brought over to DNA lab half an hour ago. Luckily, it was Valera who processed it. Not that he didn't trust Natalia, but he preferred Valera. He wasn't as close to her as to Natalia. And if Natalia found out, she would know why he had behaved the way he did when they were in bed on that one date. Why he had kept the shirt on. She had asked him to take it off, he had refused. He knew it would only be a One-Night-Stand, so he didn't want her to see his back. It would have been different if he felt it could be a long term thing. But well… With Valera, things were different. She was a co-worker he liked and respected, but nothing more. It was bad enough she would find out. But since everybody would… He shrugged. It didn't make sense to think about it. There still was a possibility that he was just mistaken. But when he heard the beep announcing that they had a DNA match, when he saw Valera looking at the screen, freezing, and then turning her head towards him, with that look of 'what the fuck?' in her eyes, he knew that it was just like he had feared. He turned around and went to the interrogation room. Horatio would be there in a minute…
--
Horatio sat down in front of him, "Mr Wolfe… I don't know how I should start this… Miss Valera found DNA on the belt from your uncle's apartment. Two of them are in CODIS. The third we couldn't match…"
"That would probably be my uncle's…"
"We thought so. It was a partial match to the other two… One of them was yours. The other one we found in our military database. Duke Wolfe."
"My father." Ryan swallowed. Valera had been thoroughly.
"Ryan… We found ephitelials from your father and uncle, we found your blood. You know we have to bring your father in for questioning; he might be in this. And you know I cannot have you work on this case. Nevertheless… I want to hear what you have to say. And I want the truth. You and I have been here before. The last time you lied to me. Don't do it this time."
Ryan had to grin, "This is about my uncle. Not about me. I wouldn't put his life in danger to save… let's call it my dignity. I'm gonna be honest with you."
Horatio put his sunglasses on the table, "Then feel free to start…"